Monday Mindset: Run Your Own Race!

“Purpose is what gives life a meaning” – Charles Henry Parkhurst

I had more response and interaction from last week’s blog than any I’ve ever written.  THANK YOU.   I really appreciated hearing from so many of you.   Here’s one that really stuck out to me:

“Your story makes me so grateful that my kids have such low expectations for me.  

Actually, in 2013 I decided to get back into playing country music and writing songs again.  It was my dream when I was a kid to write songs and perform them.  I wondered if an old guy like me could still do it.   I made some home recordings and I started playing with a band at a few local clubs and small bars.  Last week we played at the County Fair and next month we are playing at an Interstate fair – and those are sort of the “high end” when it comes to performing in this local area.  Also, I’m going into the studio in September to record 7 new songs that I’ve written recently.   So even though I can’t run (and even when I was young I couldn’t), I feel like I’m running the race that I wanted to run and even though I will turn 60 this coming October, I feel like in many ways the best is yet to come.” Rusty Jackson (Name used with permission) Singer/Song Writer.

I love this response.  My favorite line is “I feel I’m running the race that I wanted to run.” He gets it and he’s living it.  My story isn’t as much about the IRONMAN as it is about running the race you were born to run.

Passionately living your dreams and fulfilling your purpose.

One of the biggest gifts we can give ourselves and ultimately to others – starting with our family – is clarity about the race we’ve been called to run.  Yes, called.  I talked about this in a past Monday Mindset.  Too often we get caught up in our career and we lose sight of our calling.  This is when we trade our passion for a paycheck and we begin to settle.  We become “settlers”.  We settle for stuff and it affects every area of our life.  Five, ten, twenty years later we wonder what’s wrong, why we’re not excited about life, why we’re not motivated.  Don’t settle!  Life’s too short, the people you love are too important, and your calling is too significant to settle.

I had another conversation after last week’s blog.  This person said, “I know what I want to do, but I have to overcome the fear to move forward. I just don’t know how”.   Fear is not the issue and fear never goes away, never.  Clarity is the issue.  I’ve said it many times before, what we focus on expands.  Most people focus on the fear and it just gets bigger and bigger.

If you focus on clarity things get clear.

It’s your finish line that gives you’re the courage to face your fears day after day.  The biggest challenge we face is a lack of clarity of what race I should be running and where the finish line is.  As I talked with this person last week she said, “I know what I want” so I asked, “What”?  She said, “Teach and train”.  So I asked a few more questions, “What?”, “Where?”, and “Who?”

Too many of us have an idea of what we want, we have a direction to go, but no real clarity about what it is, where it is, or who it is.  We don’t know our race and we don’t know the finish line so we are stuck.

For me it wasn’t just about IRONMAN, it’s bigger than that.  It goes back to my definition of success:

My personal definition of success:  Identify the life I want to live and create or find a career that will support it. To me that’s living intentionally and passionately. I am doing what I love by helping people do what they love and having the flexibility to spend time with family, championing their successes and seeing them fulfill their dreams.  I am fully engaged with life, accepting its challenges and making the most of everyday to love God, my family and others.

IRONMAN represented this for me.
What about you? 

• What’s the race you’ve been called to run?
• What are you passionate about?
• When do you feel most alive?
• What makes your happy?
• When do you feel fulfilled?

Clarity about the finish line gives you the courage to face your fears day after day!